Post by petrolino on Mar 8, 2019 21:02:32 GMT
Paul Williams
'We've Only Just Begun' - Grant Lee Buffalo
Paul Williams is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who's acted irregularly since his days in student theatre. His songs have been widely covered by people active in the music industry. He was born a Virgo on September 19, 1940, in Omaha, Nebraska. Following the death of his father, he relocated to Long Beach, California to be with his aunt, and through sheer persistence he broke into the music industry.
"For my acting roles, I felt like I was a guest in someone else’s media. For a songwriter I guess I’m not a bad actor, and for an actor I’m not a bad songwriter."
- Paul Williams, Song Writer Universe
'The Hell Of It'
Paul Williams failed an audition to become a member of The Monkees. Like David Crosby (The Byrds), Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) and Harry Nilsson, who were among those passed over, he became an integral part of the psychedelic music scene. He put together his band The Holy Mackerel with his brother Mentor Williams who was an accomplished songwriter in his own right. The group recorded one album and their unstable line-up at different times featured bassists Bob Harvey (Jefferson Airplane) & Jerry Scheff (The Doors), drummers Don Murray (The Turtles) & Dewey Martin (Buffalo Springfield), and classical flautist Cynthia Fitzpatrick. During this busy period, Williams also co-wrote songs with multi-instrumentalist Roger Nichols.
"I think that I've always had a fascination with the sea. It's a metaphor for the call to adventure, you know? That voice is something inside us that says you can do anything. There's a great mysterious world out there, let's go see it."
- Paul Williams
Paul Williams
'Wildflowers' - The Holy Mackerel
'Bitter Honey' - Jackie DeShannon & Dr. John
'Trust' - Roger Nichols & Paul Williams
Paul Williams and Mentor Williams had another brother, NASA engineer John Williams, who was awarded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Distinguished Service Medal. In a quirk of fate, Paul Williams played a kid genius with a love of rocketry for his breakthrough role in Tony Richardson's satire 'The Loved One' (1965), which is based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh. He went on to work with many filmmakers in different capacities, utilising his talents to the full. He's survived lengthy, heavily publicised battles with addiction along the way, but has thankfully always found a way through to the other side.
"Paul Williams says it better than I can: "I self-medicated til I was 49 years old, and experienced the audience through the haze of alcohol and cocaine, numbed to the full sensation of the exchange... First, I was numbed to the sense of joy that comes from having faced your fear and survived – and it's truly joy, because the gift is a subconscious knowledge that other bottomless terrors may be pretty shallow...The second and perhaps biggest gift is the knowledge that authentic Paul (or whoever) is enough for the moment...that I don't need to go acquire something, learn something, add anything, to share my gifts with the world. Maybe that's been the best thing about the last eleven-plus sober years. The chance to really connect with people, and to realize that they're seldom really monsters. They're just people, and what we have in common in is the line the music and words are written on."
Alcohol and drugs don't eliminate stage fright; they just bury it where you can't be affected until you fall into the hole they've made. Far better to actually rid yourself of the monkey on your back.
The goal of most non-medication approaches to stage fright is to convince us that there is nothing to fear, since fight-or-flight manifests only when we perceive (or think we perceive) great danger.
Long-term therapy: Frankly, I don't think traditional long-term therapy is that helpful for someone whose only problem is stage fright. If you suffer from serious stage fright, you need help right here and now. Unraveling the root cause should ultimately make it go away, but it doesn't help the show you've got booked next month."
Alcohol and drugs don't eliminate stage fright; they just bury it where you can't be affected until you fall into the hole they've made. Far better to actually rid yourself of the monkey on your back.
The goal of most non-medication approaches to stage fright is to convince us that there is nothing to fear, since fight-or-flight manifests only when we perceive (or think we perceive) great danger.
Long-term therapy: Frankly, I don't think traditional long-term therapy is that helpful for someone whose only problem is stage fright. If you suffer from serious stage fright, you need help right here and now. Unraveling the root cause should ultimately make it go away, but it doesn't help the show you've got booked next month."
- Janis Ian
"You know, I think the trick for any songwriter is authenticity. For the young songwriter coming up who is connected to his generation, as I was connected to mine, write honestly about what's going on in the center of your life. You know, when "We've Only Just Begun" was a Number 1 record, I think the Number 1 album in the country was "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." So it was as far away from what was happening in the music scene as you can get. And yet it was a hit. I think it was a hit because of, obviously, Karen [Carpenter]'s amazing vocal, but I think that any time we write authentically and honestly about what's going on in the center of our chest, because people are so much alike, there's a big a chance that it's going on in the center of your chest, too.
Relating to the specifics of relationships, and writing love songs, I tapped into something that seemed to work for my generation. I love the fact that some of the songs continue to survive, but I think that there's a window of opportunity for a time when you really, really relate to your generation. And I think a lot of us pass through that as songwriters. You know, I've written three or four things lately with Scissor Sisters. I've got one song on their deluxe album called "Almost Sorry." It's not a love song, it's a song about a bully. I think that that frame of reference to your generation, it kind of changes through the years.
All the work that I'm doing right now, almost all of it, is for the stage. Garry Marshall and I have Happy Days opening, going into rehearsal in July in Connecticut through Good Speed Opera House. We've worked five years on a musical based on the Happy Days television show. I'm talking about doing the same thing with Phantom Of The Paradise, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, and Chicken Soup For The Soul.
But as far as writing love songs for my generation, I think there's almost kind of a window of opportunity for that. I think that at a certain point we move on to write about other things, or we're at a different place in our lives. If you get a chance, pick up an album called New Music From An Old Friend. I wrote the title song on there, "Words And Music." It's a song about hearing new music from an old friend. It's kind of about this subject. There's also a song on there that I wrote with Carole King called "Say Goodbye Today." It's about a later place in a love affair, you know, "I can't believe we're going to say goodbye, say goodbye today."
- Paul Williams, Song Facts
Relating to the specifics of relationships, and writing love songs, I tapped into something that seemed to work for my generation. I love the fact that some of the songs continue to survive, but I think that there's a window of opportunity for a time when you really, really relate to your generation. And I think a lot of us pass through that as songwriters. You know, I've written three or four things lately with Scissor Sisters. I've got one song on their deluxe album called "Almost Sorry." It's not a love song, it's a song about a bully. I think that that frame of reference to your generation, it kind of changes through the years.
All the work that I'm doing right now, almost all of it, is for the stage. Garry Marshall and I have Happy Days opening, going into rehearsal in July in Connecticut through Good Speed Opera House. We've worked five years on a musical based on the Happy Days television show. I'm talking about doing the same thing with Phantom Of The Paradise, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, and Chicken Soup For The Soul.
But as far as writing love songs for my generation, I think there's almost kind of a window of opportunity for that. I think that at a certain point we move on to write about other things, or we're at a different place in our lives. If you get a chance, pick up an album called New Music From An Old Friend. I wrote the title song on there, "Words And Music." It's a song about hearing new music from an old friend. It's kind of about this subject. There's also a song on there that I wrote with Carole King called "Say Goodbye Today." It's about a later place in a love affair, you know, "I can't believe we're going to say goodbye, say goodbye today."
- Paul Williams, Song Facts
Paul Williams & Barbra Streisand
'Rainy Days And Mondays' - Paul Williams
"In the 1970s and 80s songwriter and actor Paul Williams was a ubiquitous pop culture icon. He appeared frequently on Johnny Carson’s couch, guested on game shows and sitcoms and played memorable roles in movies like 'Smokey and the Bandit' (1977) and 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' (1973). Behind the scenes he was one of the premier architects of the sound of the Seventies, having written a slew of insta-classics covered by The Carpenters, Three Dog Night, David Bowie, and others. He gave Kermit the Frog depth with his lyrics for “The Rainbow Connection” and vicariously serenaded a million slow dances with “We’ve Only Just Begun,” originally a jingle he wrote for Crocker National Bank, later covered by The Carpenters and overplayed at American weddings.
The Museum of the Moving Image recently honored Williams for his film work and screened Stephen Kessler’s 2011 documentary 'Paul Williams: Still Alive' along with 'The Muppet Movie' (79), Elaine May’s underrated 'Ishtar' (87) and Brian De Palma’s cult rock opera 'Phantom of the Paradise' (74). Now over 20 years sober with his wit still razor-sharp, Williams is the chairman of ASCAP, is currently working on a stage-musical adaptation of Guillermo del Toro’s 'Pan’s Labyrinth', and cannot confirm or deny the rock-solid rumor that he has collaborated with masked Frenchmen Daft Punk on their forthcoming album. He’s also co-authoring a book on recovery, and after two decades of quiet productivity, it looks like his second—more serene—turn in the public eye has only just begun."
- Margaret Barton-Fumo, Film Comment
"There's a decent chance you're familiar with Paul Williams, but there's no chance you don't know his work. From pop staples like "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "An Old Fashioned Love Song," to movie anthems like "Rainbow Connection" and the Oscar-winning (and Billboard Hot 100-topping) "Evergreen," his work as a songwriter is absurdly ubiquitous and helped earn him the job of ASCAP president. But it's not just Williams' music that pops up all over pop culture -- he's made innumerable film and television appearances as well, probably most famously as the Mephistophelean Swan in 'The Phantom of the Paradise' and big-hatted, Coors-drinking Little Enos in the 'Smokey and the Bandit' movies.
Williams' latest acting gig is in 'Baby Driver', Edgar Wright's action-heist-comedy-jukebox musical that hits theaters today. Williams and the 'Shaun of the Dead' director have been friends and mutual admirers for years but this is the first time the two of them have worked together professionally."
Williams' latest acting gig is in 'Baby Driver', Edgar Wright's action-heist-comedy-jukebox musical that hits theaters today. Williams and the 'Shaun of the Dead' director have been friends and mutual admirers for years but this is the first time the two of them have worked together professionally."
- Keith Staskiewicz, Billboard
"The advent of digital music has brought with it some great changes in the way people consume music: people are able to discover new artists with ease and carry their music with theme wherever they go. Personally, I think that's a wonderful thing."
- Paul Williams
- Paul Williams
Paul Williams & Paul McCartney
'Touch' - Daft Funk featuring Paul Williams
Paul Williams was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6931 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on August 10, 1983. He was inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.
